The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-11-05

effect OF this incOngrulty was startling
1t is related that an inebrated miner, i'm
peded by mud and drink before its door,
was found gazing at its remarkable facade
with an expression OF the deepest despon-
dency. II hev lived free life, pardner, :"
he explained thickly to the Samaritan who
succored him, land every time since I've
been on this six weeks jamboree might
have kalkilated it would come to this.
Snakes I've seen afore now, and rats Pm
not unfamiliar with but when it comes to
the starn Of a ship risin' up out OF the
street, | reckon it's time to pass in my
checks" at is n ship, you blasted old
soaker,n said the Samaritan CURLY.
1t was indeed ship. A ship run
ashore and abandoned on the beach years
before by her gold seeking crew, with the
debris of her scattered stores and cargo
oyertaken by the wild growth OF the
strange city and the reclamation Of the
muddy flat, wherein she lay hopelessly
imbedded her retreat cut Off by wharves
and quays and breakwater, jostled at
first by sheds, and then impacted in a
block Of solid warehouses and dwellings,
her rudder, port and counter boarded in,
and now gazing hopelcssly through her
cabin windows upon the busy street be-
fore her But still a ship despite her
transformation. The faintest line Of con
tour yet left visible spoke Of the buoy
ancy Of another element; the balustrade
OF her roof was Enthusiastically a taffrail
The rain slipped from her swelling sides
with certain lingering touch of the sea;
the soil around her was still treacherous
with It's suggestions, and even the wind
whistled nautically over her chimney.
II, In the fury Of some southwesterly gale,
she had one night slipped her strange
mornings and left a shining track through
would have been surprised.
Least Of all, perhaps, her present owner
and possessor, Mr.. Abner Mott. For, by
the irony Of circumstances, Mr.. Mott was
far western farmer, who had never seen
ship before, nor n larger stream Of water
than n tributary of the Missouri river.
In spirit, half Of fascination, half of
speculation, he had bought her at the
time Of her abandonment, and had since
mortgaged his ranch Mt Petaluma, with
his live stock to defray the expense Of
filling in the land where she stood and
the Improvements Of the vicinity. He
had transferred his household goods and
his only daughter to her cabin and had
divided the space "between decks and
her hold into lodging rooms and lofts for
the storage Of goods. 1t could hardly be
said that the investment had been proiita-
bic. His tenants vaguely recognized that
his occupancy was II sentimental rather
than commercial speculation, and often
generously lent themselves to the illusion
by not paying their rent. Others treated
their own tenancy as n joke-a quaint
recreation born Of the childlike familiar
ity Of frontier intercourse. A few had
left, carelessly abandoning their unsala-
BILE goods to their landlord with great
cheerfulness and sense Of favor. Oc-
casionally Mr. Abner Mott, in prac-
teal relapse, ragged against the derelicts,
and talked Of dispossessing them, or even
uisIIdntlHp HIS leneulcnt, Dut nc was
easily placated by compliment to the
'dear old ship" or an effort made by
some tenant to idealize his apartment. A
photographer who had ingeniously util-
lied the forecastle for a gallery accessible
from the bows in the next street,, paid no
further tribute than portrait Of the
pretty face Of Rosey Mott. The super
stitious reverence In which Abuer Mott
held his monstrous fancy was naturally
enhanced by his purely buco!ic cxaggera.
ton Of its real functions and its native
element "This yer keel has sailed, and
sailed, and sailed" he would explain with
some incongruity OF illustration, "in Q
Bee Line, maxim tracks for days runnin'.
I reckon more storms and billiards. bez